AWARENESS

Resilience of territories to wildfires and floods

AWARENESS helps local authorities, first responders and citizens prepare together for wildfire and flood risks, with co-designed digital tools tested in five European territories.

Group photo of the AWARENESS kick-off participants in front of a Sécurité Civile Canadair water bomber
The AWARENESS kick-off in Nîmes, 7-8 October 2026. Photo: Aerospace Valley

Opportunity · Horizon Europe – Research and Innovation Action

What is AWARENESS?

Wildfires and floods are becoming more frequent and more intense across Europe. National forecasts are advanced, but smaller regional and local authorities often lack the tools to turn them into concrete action on the ground. Communication with citizens also struggles to reach the most vulnerable.

AWARENESS bridges this “last mile” gap. It combines artificial intelligence, digital twins, early warning systems and immersive tools with a co-creation approach involving local communities. The goal is to move from top-down alerts to resilience built together.

Working session at the kick-off in Nîmes: a speaker presents the Italian flood-risk pilot to the consortium partners
Session on the Italian pilot (Basilicata, floods). Photo: Aerospace Valley
  • Strengthen local authorities’ capacity to prevent and manage emergencies, with a Decision Support dashboard based on hyperlocal data.
  • Engage citizens and vulnerable groups through a two-way communication app and co-creation pathways.
  • Test innovative solutions in five operational pilots in France, Spain, Italy, Norway and Poland.
  • Spread a culture of risk across Europe, with a Replication Toolkit and recommendations for local policies.

Pilots

Five territories, five challenges

France · Wildfires

Nîmes

Resilient communication even when terrestrial networks are down.

Spain · Wildfires

Extremadura

High-resolution predictive models.

Italy · Floods

Basilicata

Integrated Decision Support System and AR/VR tools for communities.

Norway · Floods

Årdal

Dynamic risk analysis with digital twins.

Poland · Flash floods

Rzeszów

Early warning based on artificial intelligence.

From the Nîmes kick-off

Kick-off participants visiting the apron with the Sécurité Civile firefighting aircraft in Nîmes
Visit to the firefighting aircraft apron. Photo: Aerospace Valley
Kick-off participants during a visit to an operations room in Nîmes
Visit to an operations room. Photo: Aerospace Valley

Consortium

The partners

19 organisations from 6 European countries: local authorities, civil protection, universities, research centres and businesses.

  • Aerospace Valley
  • LEOBLUE
  • Nîmes Métropole
  • SDIS 30
  • NORCE
  • Årdal Kommune
  • Norsk Folkehjelp
  • CREATEC
  • Basilicata Region
  • UNIBAS
  • CNR
  • FUNDECYT-PCTEX
  • Universidad de Extremadura
  • WSIiZ
  • Municipality of Rzeszów
  • Powiat Ropczycko-Sędziszowski
  • OSP Glinik
  • NEREUS
  • Junta de Extremadura

Latest updates

  • 08/10/2026 · The European project AWARENESS is under way: three years of innovation serving the resilience of territories

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.